Bozell: NBC, CBS Ignore LGBT Link To Family Research Council Shooter

FBI personnel outside the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 15, 2012. (AP Photo)

(CNSNews.com) – The minimal and dismissive coverage by CBS and NBC of the shooting at the Family Research Council (FRC) by a suspect who volunteered at a pro-homosexual group and apparently was politically motivated is another example of how the “liberal media have repeatedly and deliberately turned a blind eye to the violent, hateful culture of liberalism,” said Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center.

The alleged shooter, Floyd Lee Corkins II of Herndon, Va., entered the lobby of the conservative FRC in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday morning and shot the security guard, Leo Johnson in the arm. Johnson, wounded, was able to subdue the shooter as help arrived. The suspect is in custody and the FBI is investigating the case.

Commenting on the news coverage, Bozell said, “The liberal media have repeatedly and deliberately turned a blind eye to the violent, hateful culture of liberalism, particularly their vicious attacks against those who advocate traditional Christian values and conservative principles.”

“We saw it during their deceptive, romanticized coverage of Occupy Wall Street,” said Bozell. “We saw it again during their sneering, anti-Christian coverage of the Chick-fil-A controversy. And now we’re seeing it through NBC’s and CBS’s dismissive coverage of this senseless shooting at the FRC,” he said.

On its Web site, the FRC, a non-profit group, states that it “has advanced faith, family and freedom in public policy and public opinion” since 1983. The group’s mission statement also says in part that the “FRC shapes public debate and formulates public policy that values human life and upholds the institutions of marriage and family.”

Alleged gunman Floyd Corkins is taken into custody outside the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 15, 2012. (AP Photo)

According to an FBI affidavit by Special Agent Garrett Nabors, Corkins had a 9mm gun and two additional magazines loaded with 9mm ammunition. In his backpack was a "box of Federal brand 9mm ammunition, containing an additional fifty rounds of ammunition and fifteen sandwiches from Chick-fil-A," reads the affidavit.

The FBI affidavit further states, "Corkins' parents informed the FBI Special Agents that Corkins has strong opinions with respect to those he believes do not treat homosexuals in a fair manner."

Bozell said, “Imagine if, God forbid, this exact same thing had happened at a Planned Parenthood or the Southern Law Poverty Center, which labeled both Chick-fil-A and FRC hate groups. We’d be hearing an endless loop of stories about the danger of militant, hate-filled right wing wackos.”

(Disclosure: The Media Research Center is the parent organization of CNSNews.com.)

The statement by the Media Research Center (MRC) noted that neither the NBC Nightly News nor the CBS Evening News ran a full story on the FRC shooting, “instead committing only 17 and 20 seconds respectively for anchor briefs that omitted the shooter’s motive.” ABC’s World News, however, did produce a full report.

“The NBC and CBS omissions are merely the latest in a long pattern of the liberal media minimizing or spinning acts of hate and violence perpetrated by liberals,” reads the MRC statement. “Some recent examples include:

“ -- In the month of July alone there were five separate violent attacks against pro-lifers with ZERO coverage from ABC, CBS, and NBC. Instead the networks devoted a combined 101 stories to the Tom Cruise – Katie Holmes divorce.

L. Brent Bozell III, president of the Media Research Center.

"-- ABC, NBC, and CBS ignored anti-Semitism during the L.A. and New York Occupy Wall Street protests in October.

"-- ABC and NBC ignored 75 arrests during an Occupy Wall Street demonstration in Oakland, CA that, according to CBSNews.com, including ‘reports of a sex assault and a severe beating and fire.’

"-- ABC, NBC, and CBS ignored three separate incidents of anti-Christian vandalism – one in California, one in Missouri, and one in Maryland - committed against Chick-fil-A.”

Bozell said, “The liberal media have taken every opportunity imaginable to demonize conservatives, Tea Partiers, and Christians as violent and murderous. Whether it be the Gabriel Giffords shooting, the Aurora massacre, the suicide of a Kentucky census worker, or the IRS plane bomber, they’ve been wrong every single time. But they go right on lying about conservatives anyway.”

“In their effort to create a conservative bogeyman, they’ve created real liberal monsters,” said Bozell. “Their double standard is as dishonest and it is dangerous. Liberals claim they want to create a culture of tolerance. Instead the liberal media have created a culture that not only tolerates, but validates anti-Christian and anti-conservative violence.”

“Thank God for the bravery of the FRC security guard who had the courage to disarm this militant, hate-filled left wing wacko before this shooting turned into a massacre,” he said. Johnson underwent surgery on Wednesday evening and FRC President Tony Perkins said it “went well.”